Summary

2 Part Vertical Painting 1991 consists of two very large rectangular portrait-oriented canvases, painted with opaque pale grey acrylic, that are horizontally aligned with a narrow space between them. The two canvases are identical in size and both are completely covered in thin layers of paint applied in even brushstrokes to produce a uniform surface. The overall composition, encompassing the two canvases and the gap of 4.5 cm between them, constitutes a square measuring over two and a half metres in height and width.

This work was made in London by the British artist Alan Charlton. It is one of fourteen paintings in the Central Group series that he completed in 1991 for an exhibition at the Hallen für neue Kunst gallery in the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. Alongside two works that involve pairs of canvases, including this painting, the series also contains single-panel works featuring small holes or horizontal sections cut out of the canvas, such as Painting with Four Square Holes 1991 (Tate T07451) and Single Horizontal Slot Painting 1991 (Tate T07439), as well as works with four, five, ten and twenty panels (see 20 Part Line Painting 1991, Tate T07450). The series was designed to be a summary of the forms employed in the artist’s career to date with the paintings also offering a response to the architecture of the gallery space.

The Central Group series is characteristic of the way in which Charlton’s practice explores the formal permutations of abstract painting – especially concerning notions of repetition – within the context of two specific restrictions he places on his work. Firstly, the artist uses a measurement of 4.5 cm, which is the depth of his canvases’ standard wooden stretcher bars, as the basis for all of the dimensions in his work, including the cut-out sections and the spaces between different canvases, as is the case in this work. Secondly, he paints only in grey, shades of which can vary from very pale to darker tones and an almost blue colour, applied in different thicknesses and intensities. In a conversation with the curator and art historian Guido de Werd in 2008 – a rare instance of the artist making a public statement on his work – Charlton discussed his decision to focus on grey:

You can say that grey is a neutral colour and it is logical to think that is why I would use it. But for me it is a colour and my reasons for using it grow more and more. From the beginning, its urban industrial qualities, to the silent emotion it evokes.(Quoted in Museum Kurhaus Kleve 2008, p.49.)

Charlton trained at Sheffield Art School (1965–6), Camberwell School of Arts in London (1966–9) and the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1969–72). Influenced by American minimalist art, he began making large grey paintings in 1969. His first exhibited works in the 1970 series Square Hole Paintings featured small cut-out sections in the corners and sides of the canvas, while Charlton initially employed narrow vertical and horizontal apertures in the Slot paintings of 1971–2. Created in 1972–5, the series Channel Paintings, which includes Channel Painting No. 6 1975 (Tate T03894), consists of inner canvases surrounded by outer canvas ‘frames’ in the same shade of grey – the first time the artist’s work had employed more than one physical element. The 1978 series Details features square paintings, measuring 4.5 cm by 4.5 cm, a scale much smaller than Charlton has commonly used, while in later works, such as 10 Part Corner Painting 1986 and Four Walls Four Greys 1991, canvases are positioned across adjoining walls in the gallery.

In cutting out sections and dividing his canvases into multiple parts, Charlton seems to place particular emphasis on his paintings as objects. In 1997 the curator Guy Tosatto claimed that Charlton’s works ‘belong to the domain of painting and yet, like sculptures, they alter the space of the wall’ (Guy Tosatto, ‘The Work of Silence’, in Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes 1997, unpaginated).

Technique and condition

The painting was executed on two separate pieces of medium-weight cotton duck canvas that were stretched around individual and identical fixed strainers and attached at their rears with wire staples. The artist made both strainers and each consists of nine strips of Douglas Fir wood.

The opaque grey paint is household matt emulsion paint and was applied directly to the front and sides of the stretched canvas, without any form of preparation. The first layer was diluted right down with a significant amount of water and the subsequent layers (there are five layers in total) were thinned progressively less. Although each layer was applied by brush, the final surface shows no brushstrokes and the only texture visible is that of the underlying canvas weave.

The painting is in excellent condition, although it's very dry, delicate and uniform surface makes it extremely vulnerable to marks and scuffs, especially from touching. It is therefore vital that the painting is always displayed behind a barrier and is handled with extreme care.